SEAVnews. At least 8 people died as heavy monsoon rains poured over Metro Manila and central and northern Luzon on Wednesday, August 25. PAGASA, the Philippines’ weather bureau, declared that Metro Manila has seen a record rainfall of 39 milliliters per hour when the average is 7.5 milliliters. Schools and government offices were closed as hundreds of families were evacuated from flooded areas. A landslide in San Mateo, Rizal buried a home leaving a four-year-old child missing and presumed dead.

Despite the extremely bad weather today, the traffic was not particularly bad going to the office. This considering that both my sister and me woke up later than usual. Most people probably decided not to venture out of their houses anymore.

The most interesting thing that happened today was that the employees in my company who showed up ended up doing nothing in the morning because the power was out for around three hours. I’m not sure if it was related to the rains. In addition, a lot of people didn’t show up for work because of floods and the lack of public transportation. The Marikina River, just beside our building, swelled and overflowed its banks on the Pasig City side. And the excavated area in the middle of Eastwood became a mini-lake.

All in all, today was just a more than the usual rainy day.